April 2010
Encouraging news from this project! The vocational trainging center has been completed and a classroom dedicated to Patiyar's 150 students is complete and in full use. Instead of meeting under a tree the children now have desks and a roof over their head.
They sent us a thank you letter including some pictures the children drew of the new center. This ministry is an on-going blessing to the children and an investment in their future. It is always heart warming when a big project like this is completed. Its tangible evidence that we are making a difference for those living on less than $1 a day.
April 2009
When Patiyar Chaudhary graduated from Christian Fellowship he had a dream. He would preach the gospel of Jesus to an area of India where only 2% of the population knows Jesus as savior.
He found a community of Dalits, the outcasts and untouchales of the Hindu cast system, and he knew he had found his calling. He began with a church and now more than 10 years later Bright Hope is helping take his dream to the next level.
For years he has been tutoring children in the community. Everyday 150 children gather together behind his mud hut and he teaches them from the Bible and helps them with their school work. For some children this meeting is the only education they receive.
In the summer time when temperatures reach 113 degrees F the only relief they find is in the shade of a tree that stands near his home. In partnership Bright Hope is helping to provide food for these children along with uniforms and stationary so they can attend regular schooling. In addition, a regional training center for Christian Fellowship is under construction.
When complete it will provide a new place for Patiyar to mentor his students as well as serve as a vocational training center. This will create new job opportunities for this oppressed community and give new hope to a people that is experiencing the love of a life laid down for Jesus.
